At the back of every conversation about law school admissions, the financial implications of the law school decision lurk, and probably at the forefront of many of the conversations you have with prelaw students. The decision to pursue a law school education is not a cheap or easy one for many people, and the debate swirling around possible legal education changes has everything to do with the storied debt associated with a JD. Until those changes (maybe) come to pass, we have the system as it stands, with available money largely bound up in merit-based scholarships, mostly based on LSAT scoring. As many of your students have just finished the October test or are ramping up for the December LSAT, we thought it would be an excellent time to look around at what’s going on in the school financial aid landscape. We’ll include links to old and new material for you and your students to check out.
Doling It Out: Where Does the Money Go?
First of all, with all the calls for reform both inside and outside of the law school community, it’s worthwhile to look at the defending position, i.e. the people that are saying that significant change in the law school curriculum for the purposes of saving money or perhaps the next natural evolution of that field of academia is not cost-effective, possible, or even good for students. Frank H. Wu, the Chancellor and Dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, contributed this article to Above the Law, outlining on just how exactly law schools work financially– particularly highlighting the fact that (most) law schools are tuition-dependent, and a serious shift in that system would both be difficult and result in huge revenue losses for schools. Radical changes like switching from a three- to a two-year curriculum as President Obama has advocated have come under fire from some law school experts on an educational basis. Daniel Rodriguez, the dean of Northwestern University School of Law, weighed in on US News and World Report’s Debate Club on the subject, arguing that law schools need all three years to produce a practice-ready attorney (you can read the counterpoint here). On the other side, a committee convened by no less than the American Bar Association to examine law school education in general released a report detailed here that found the system is in need of a great deal of changes, including a specific focus on the area of financial aid.
Ranking the Money Factor
All of the various institutions that make their case for law school rankings take employment into account, but the widespread criticism about how law school rankings are configured apply here too. The Princeton Review (admittedly a rival test preparation company) has released a list of their Best Value Law Schools, which has been widely disseminated in publications like Forbes. But they have come under fire for their methodology, including using non-current employment figures and a lack of accounting for what kinds of jobs law students take after graduation. So how does a student know where to turn? First of all, some good old-fashioned research is probably in order– many of the rankings lists like US News and World Report break down the individual factors like employment and median starting salary that they take into account in their rankings; encouraging students not to focus as much on the rankings themselves, but instead on all of the pieces of individual information is a great way for students to get involved with the process and not just rely on you to do the work for them. One pieces of advice we hear advisors consistently giving to students is to reach out to law schools they are interested in about their specific financial aid packages and options; the law schools themselves are a great source of information to supplement everything you give them.
Creating A Financial Aid Plan
Our first recommendation to students is to get in touch with an advisor, because it is incredibly valuable to have an advocate with experience and information in your corner. The LSAC itself has some helpful information as well, including a PDF outlining the basics of law school financial aid (a great entry point to the financial aid process). Our admissions experts from the 180live have also discussed how to capitalize on scholarship opportunities. It is well worth it for students to look into any and all options, even those slightly outside of the box, including public sector job targeting and specific career centers in expanding fields of study.
Our next episode of the 180live will feature Elie Mystal, one of the chief contributors to the blog Above the Law and an outspoken critique of the legal education status quo. This is a great opportunity for advisors and students alike to sound off on a lot of these issues! Register now to join the conversation– we would love to hear your input.
